


Getting Through to Get Happy

by DarkJediQueen



Series: Just Write Trope Bingo 2020 [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Just Write Trope Bingo 2020, M/M, One-Shot, deputy!Stiles, lawyer!derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:08:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25763434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Stiles hadn't realized he had competence kink until he was sitting in the witness box and Derek Hale was questioning him.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Just Write Trope Bingo 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803853
Comments: 35
Kudos: 379
Collections: Just Write! Trope Bingo





	Getting Through to Get Happy

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Future  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : This is a completed One-shot. There will be no more written in the universe. Prompts come from the Just Write Discord Server's 2020 Trope Bingo challenge. For the prompt: Competence  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

Stiles really didn't want to be sitting in the witness box. He still had no clue why the DA had pushed forward with the indictment. They had nothing that pinned the murder on the man sitting beside where Derek and Peter Hale were sitting. They had more than enough reasonable doubt that Stiles knew that this was going to look bad on the whole Sheriff's Department.

The Sheriff, Stiles's father, Noah Stilinski, had fought tooth and nail to get this to not happen, but here they were. Noah also knew that Stiles wasn't going to lie on the stand to keep the DA looking good.

"Deputy Stilinski," Derek said as he stood up after looking at his notes.

Stiles knew a stall tactic when he saw it. He had been across from Peter Hale several times for cases, but Peter rarely won them. He was a good lawyer, but he also took any case in the area, no matter of guilt or innocence. He didn't care about his win-loss ratio for cases where the Hale, Hale, & Hale firm took when they were acting as public defenders. It wasn't a shock that they were doing this case pro-bono, considering that Isaac Lahey was being charged with a murder that he couldn't have committed.

"When you arrived at the scene, who was there?"

"Just the neighbor who had called it in."

"When was Isaac notified?"

"I am unsure of the exact time as I was not the one sent for death notification. That was Deputy Parrish."

"Ballpark range."

"Somewhere between one to two hours after the identity of the body was confirmed."

"And when was the last time that you had seen Isaac before you saw him after he was arrested?"

"I responded to a call at the Jungle. He was there with Miss Reyes and Mister Boyd. They were witnesses to a fight there. They left in a vehicle with your Uncle, Peter Hale, after their statements were given."

"And when you saw Isaac again at the station, what was he wearing?"

"The same clothes that he had been wearing at the Jungle."

"How do you know?"

"Isaac had been the one to pull apart the two men fighting. He received a bloody nose for that, and some blood had dripped on his shirt. Also, there was a tear in his collar."

"Both of which are still on the shirt he's wearing when he was booked, correct?"

"Yes."

Stiles could see in the jury's eyes that they were following along with what Derek was doing. He shifted in his seat as a little arousal flared in him. He had looked at Derek from afar for many years, seeing each other, but this was the first time Derek had ever been the one questioning anyone. He dealt mainly with family cases, divorce, and the like, but he had a secondary law degree in criminal justice as well. It was well known. Nearly everyone at Hale, Hale, & Hale had at least two law degrees in varying specialties.

"Given the nature of the death for Mister Lahey, could the killer have committed the crime without getting blood on them?"

"No. The splatter pattern and method of death show that the killer was in front."

"Is there any way that Isaac could have killed his father and not got any blood on him?"

"Yes."

Derek's eyes widened. "How so?"

"He could have stripped naked before killing his father and then cleaned up and put his clothes back on himself."

"His clothes were taken, there was no trace of blood beside his own on them. There was no evidence of clean up at the scene. So to the best of your knowledge, did Isaac do that?"

"No."

"Is there anything else that the killer would have had on him?"

"At least a bruise on his body somewhere. Mister Lahey's knuckles on his left hand were bruised. He got a good shot off at his killer. The bones were not broken, though, so ME estimated that he must have got a hit on the body."

"So you have proof that the broken nose that my client obtained was one, obtained at the Jungle and two, not from the victim?"

"Yes."

Stiles could see the DA getting more and more worked up as he sat there.

"Thank you, Deputy Stilinski," Derek said.

Stiles sat and waited for the DA to get himself together. As Stiles was called by the defense, it was something of a crapshoot on what exactly the DA could muster up to save this case. No one mourned Mister Lahey, at least no one who knew the circumstances that were around the adoption of him by Peter Hale when he was fifteen.

The DA's questioning was something that Stiles would have laughed at if he wasn't on the job at the moment. Stiles sought out his father in the crowd, and he saw him roll his eyes. Stiles nodded.

A few minutes later, he was released, with the knowledge he could be called up again at any time and would still be under oath. The DA worked his way through the rest of the Deputies that had worked the crime scene. Hale didn't call anyone else up and, in fact, rested his case without putting Isaac on the stand. The DA rested him as well. The evidence that Isaac had killed his father was just a bunch of shit in the past.

Stiles was friendly with Isaac in high school and knew that he had worked through everything. Peter had put him into therapy as soon as he could. Isaac said that he had started to just ignore everything to do with his father. He had been in prison and only released a year and a half ago. Isaac had been notified, but Stiles had been the one to do that, and Isaac thanked him, and they kept on talking about everything else. Despite being friendly with him, Stiles didn't know the Hales well at all, which at this moment was a good thing. He really didn't need to pop boners around Derek Hale.

* * *

The call of shots fired in a residential area has Stiles strapping on a vest a block from the area and then walking into it. He knew well enough that coming in with lights and sirens was just going to get him a shot at. Everyone else was rushing into the area, but he was the closest.

Stiles listened for any noise and followed the sound of what seemed like a fight. He walked down the block, looking for the house with an open door. A lady in the window of one house pointed at the house across the street, and when Stiles looked, he did see that the door was open a little. He waved at her to go back inside and then headed that way. He stayed at an angle to the door until he had to get in front of it to enter. He pushed open the door, hearing the sounds of fighting getting louder.

"Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department," Stiles yelled before he fully entered the house. He heard a noise from the kitchen area and headed that way. There was a thud and reverberation of what sounded like metal just as he looked into the room. There was a man on the floor, groaning and clutching his groin and then further another man with a bloody head. Above him was Derek with a frying pan in his hand.

"Deputy," Derek said.

"Mister Hale." Stiles holstered his weapon and then headed over to the man on the floor. He rolled him and cuffed him before doing the same to the unconscious one. "Have you been shot?"

"Grazed." Derek showed the meat of his upper arm, where there was indeed blood seeping out of the area.

Stiles radioed in the address of where he was and that there were two suspects in cuffs in the kitchen, and he was going to check the rest of the house.

"Stay here," Stiles said.

Derek nodded.

Clearing the house took the work of minutes as every single room already had it's doors open. There was no one else inside the house.

Parrish was already in the kitchen talking to Derek when Stiles came back in.

"You were home when they broke in?" Parrish asked.

"Yes. I was in the living room. I lost a case today, and I was in the dark in the living room with a glass of scotch. That little girl is going back to her father's, and I'm afraid before I can get the courts to give up custody, she's going to be killed."

"The Miraz case?" Stiles asked.

"Yes." Derek nodded.

"We have-well had a deputy sitting on the house. I don't know if the Sheriff pulled that to send them here."

"No," Parrish said as he shook his head. "It's off duty deputies and officers only on that one. Three-hour shifts either right before or right after a shift. If she screams, they are going to go in under exigent circumstances."

Derek nodded his head, and it looked like a weight was off of his shoulders. "The mom is trying, and now she's a hell of a lot better than the father. She's got roommates now, she's living with another couple, and they have a daughter around Sammie's age. Sammie wants to be with them."

Stiles let Parrish question Derek about what happened.

"Do you know them?" Stiles asked after Parrish

"Yeah, I was the public defender assigned to them that didn't get them off. I wasn't made aware that they were released either. I was supposed to be told as they had threatened me in court after they were found guilty."

"I'll look into that," Stiles said. He texted his father about it, looking at the names that Parrish had written down in his book. He assumed that he had been gotten off their IDs in their pockets as he had heard the other deputies talking about that while he had cleared the house.

"Mister Hale, just one more question," Parrish said.

Stiles kept his grin to himself. Parrish had been calling him Derek the whole time, and now it was Mister Hale.

"A frying pan?" Parrish asked.

"He was wearing a cup," Derek said.

"Where was the frying pan?"

"On the stove. I use it to make my eggs every morning, so it stays on my stove, upside down over the burner I use. It was easy to grab it and swing. He was a trained fighter; I could only hold out against him for so long. It's why I put down the other guy first. He wasn't wearing a cup, and I'm sure I either broke his dick or busted his balls, or hopefully both."

"You've got a pretty good shiner going there," Stiles said after Parrish left the room.

"Yeah, I'll go with the EMTs when the third ambulance gets here. If I don't, my Uncle will make me go in the morning."

"Do you want me to drive you?"

"That would work. I am pretty sure I might have a low-grade concussion. Isaac will pick me up when he gets off of work in three hours."

"That works," Stiles said. He looked at Parrish, who was standing on the back porch. Parrish nodded his head. He was talking to someone, but Stiles knew that he had been listening in to what Stiles was saying. "Okay, let's go. Also, I'm going to make sure you don't fall asleep."

"Then keep the windows up. The cool air makes me sleepy."

"Sure."

* * *

"Stiles!" Parrish yelled when Stiles entered the station. He looked to see where he was, and he was at his computer. Stiles wandered over to where he was as he saw that something was on the screen. It looked like footage of some kind. "So Hale has a camera in his kitchen and one in the entryway. He gave us access."

"Oh, well, that will go well with the jury."

"Yeah, this is the footage." Parrish hit play.

Stiles watched as the two men entered the front door. One of them went to the left and off of the camera while the other went right and stayed on there for a few seconds. There was no noise, but it was a dual-screen showing the kitchen as well. There were a few flashes, and then Derek was being thrown into the kitchen. He got up quickly and after a few traded blows punched the one man in the stomach and then kicked him hard enough between the legs that Stiles actually saw the guy raise up off the ground.

"Fuck," Stiles said.

"Yeah, we got the report from the doctor on him, both of his testicles are severely bruised, and he did, in fact, get his dick broke."

Stiles nodded in response to the words and kept on watching as the second man came into the kitchen from the living room area. He had to have doubled back as he was the one that had gone the other way.

Derek and the man traded blows for a lot longer, and Stiles cringed when he saw the man get a good shot toward where even on the grainy footage, Stiles could see the gunshot wound to Derek's arm.

"The shot had to have happened in the living room."

"According to Derek, it did. That's also where the gun was found. I am pretty sure that the guy threw it at Derek after the gun jammed following the first shot. Forensics has it down as still jammed."

Stiles watched as the guy on the floor still stayed down, probably in too much pain to do anything. Then the second guy's head spun around and looked toward the front. Stiles was pretty sure that was when he got there. The time in the video matched the rough estimate of when Stiles got there. Derek punched the guy in the face and then reached around and grabbed the frying pan. Stiles hissed when the man went down from the hit.

"Well, that's something, I'll say."

Stiles looked back at his father, and he was glad he hadn't jumped and screamed. He was used to his father doing it at this point.

"How is Mister Hale doing?"

"Low-grade concussion, but the bullet wound was just a graze. He was released into the care of Mister Lahey. I have his statement here, and later today, he is going to come in for a formal interview about it and to sign it." Stiles handed his father the statement. He had stayed with him to get anything else that he could before leaving him in the ER doctors' care.

"Well, the notification that was supposed to be sent to Mister Hale was returned to the sender because they wrote his address wrong. It was put into a' to be dealt with' pile that was never dealt with. I figure that Peter is going to sue them. I wouldn't be shocked. That man loves to sue everyone."

"Did you tell me a story once where he threatened to sue you?" Stiles asked.

"No, Stiles, I did not tell you that. I told Chris that."

"Oh." Stiles nodded his head. Yup, he had been eavesdropping on his father after he had a date with Chris. "Well, then I never heard that at all."

"What did he threaten to sue you over, Sir?" Parrish asked.

Stiles could feel his father's glare from where he was.

"I threatened to sue him for police brutality if he didn't take me on a date," a voice said from behind them.

"What?" Parrish asked.

"I bumped into him in the store," Noah said.

"I fell, my body was injured. I was going to sue," Peter said with a faint leer on his face as he looked Stiles' father up and down. "Still might at that. I have the footage still. What's being done about two men who threatened to kill my nephew being released and him not knowing about it?"

"I have a call into the proper people to handle it. One of my deputies is babysitting the person who needs to do it and is going through all lingering issues and dealing with them. They wrote his address wrong, and it was returned. There was a note to send it to your guys' office, but no one ever did."

"Good. Now, I heard that one of your deputies talked him into going to the hospital."

"I didn't talk him into anything. He said you would drag him there if he didn't go, so he bit the bullet, as it were," Stiles said.

"Ah, Deputy Stilinski, now I understand why he told me that. If everything is actually being handled, then I will head into work. I've got to take over Derek's cases for the day since the doctors put him home for the day." Peter gave them all a smile and then turned to leave.

"I don't know what just happened," Parrish said.

"You really don't want to know," Stiles said.

"Stiles," Noah said.

Stiles mimed zipping his lips shut before he turned back to the computer and restarted the whole thing. It was a pretty open and shut case. The guys were going to go away for who knew what. At least the new DA would be more than willing to play ball on this. The last had been ousted after the whole Lahey case.

"So?" Parrish asked.

"I'll tell you when we go get lunch for everyone," Stiles said.

"Sure."

Lunch came too quickly, and Stiles was getting into his cruiser with Parrish in the passenger seat. He was tired since he had stayed over on his shift to take Derek to the ER. He hadn't been able to come in late, but he could leave early today, so he didn't get too many hours.

"So..."

"You know that Peter is a little bit younger than Dad and Chris Argent. Well, I guess there was something between Chris and Peter when Peter was of legal age. So when Dad and Chris were seeing each other, Peter kept on butting in. It ended up ending the relationship because Chris didn't like the pressure it was putting on Dad. The whole sue thing did happen. I kind of remember it when I was younger. Chris and Peter have now been together for about five years. Peter gets what he wants, and then it was Chris. Dad was heartbroken for a while, but then he just pushed everything into work and took care of me. Chris was the first person that Dad ever dated after mom died. Seriously that is. He went on a few dates here and there, but no one ever got a second. I wouldn't be half shocked if Dad was still in love with him. He let him go, though."

"Fuck, I didn't realize. That's why when Argent's house was broken into, he didn't handle it and shoved it off on everyone else. Well, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, Dad works cases as he can, and since the Argent's house is outside the city lines, it was on us to take care of it."

Parrish nodded his head, and he looked thoughtful, but there was something else there as well.

"What?" Stiles asked.

"Well, I just...Mister Argent has been stopping by the station a lot to drop of things that he could easily just mail. He always looks around is disappointed when he doesn't see your father."

"I'm not getting in the middle of that, and I would tell the other guys not to as well." Stiles sighed and rubbed his face with his hand as he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant they had ordered their food at.

If Chris was unhappy, that was on him. Stiles really didn't want the man entering their life again.

* * *

"Hey, Daddio, I'm home!" Stiles yelled as he came in with a box of pizza and two packs of beer. He slammed the door and was glad no pictures fell off of the wall. He set the pizza down and grabbed the beer. He headed toward the kitchen with them. They were already cold, but he wanted them to stay that way. He stopped as he took in Chris standing in the kitchen with a deer in the headlights look. He was wearing only a pair of Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department basketball shorts.

"DAD!" Stiles yelled.

Feet on the stairs had Stiles looking, and he saw his father rushing into the kitchen. He was pulling on a T-shirt, but the love bites on his chest were something that Stiles wanted to unsee. 

"Stiles, what are you doing here?"

"Why is he here?" Stiles asked, pointing at Chris. 

"Stiles," Noah said. He stood up a little straighter.

"Fuck this, Dad. He was in a restaurant with Peter two days ago, so even if that means that they broke up that night, you are the one who always told me to never fuck anyone who had just broken up with someone." Stiles closed his mouth to take a breath to finish out his tirade when he heard feet on the stairs. He walked over to look, and his brain sort of broke. Peter was wearing a shirt that Stiles knew that he had bought for his father. "Okay. That's...well, that happened. Have a good night Dad. I brought pizza and beer. Enjoy." 

Stiles went right to the front door, and he ignored his father yelling at him as he pulled out of the driveway. He didn't look in his rearview mirror and instead just drove to the bar that he liked to frequent on game nights. He parked in the spot that he usually did at the edge of the lot and then headed inside. His Jeep was mostly hidden from the road, and unless someone went into the parking lot, no one would see it. It wasn't all that full yet, given the game was still an hour away from starting. His phone started to vibrate, and Stiles just ignored it. The vibration pattern was one that was only assigned to his father's personal cell phone. 

"Stiles, I thought you were watching the game at your father's tonight?" one of the regulars named Roy asked.

"Let's just say that his plans changed." Stiles tried his hardest to make it known that he didn't want to talk about it.

"Gotcha. Well, jump up here beside me, and we can discuss the horribleness that trades were this season." Roy was grinning as he said it. 

Stiles nodded his head. The bartender slid over a bottle of Stiles' favorite beer, and he nodded at him. Stiles looked at the TV where it was showing the sportscasters talking. The TV was on mute at the moment, but the captions were up. 

"So how about them Mets?" Jesse asked as he slid into the seat on the other side of Stiles.

"Oh, fuck you," Stiles said.

"Not even if you paid me," Jesse said back before he shoved at Stiles' shoulder with a grin on his face. 

The next hour passed quickly, and the game started up. Stiles kept chatting with Jesse and Roy. 

Stiles was laughing about a bungled play when the chatter in the bar dropped down to nothing. It was the same thing that happened every time Stiles went anywhere with his father while he was in uniform. Stiles looked at the bartender and glared. "You are dead to me." 

"Sorry," but he didn't mean it. Stiles knew that from the way that the man looked at Noah.

"I don't want to talk," Stiles said after he drained his beer. He turned around on the stool that he was on. His father was dressed in normal clothes. 

"We need to talk."

"Nope. Not at all. I'm trying to watch the game. Just go home." 

Stiles turned back around and stopped listening to everything. He had perfected the art of doing it a long time before. Droning teachers who never shut up and only were blowing their own smoke. It was something that had made sure that he survived years in school with teachers who only liked to listen to themselves talking. 

When the game was over, Stiles looked around. His father had left. He wasn't ready to face him. He had to think, and he had to get things straight in his head. The bar was mostly empty, a few guys watching the game replay and drinking away their troubles. Stiles paid with his card, ignoring the words from the bartender. When he got outside, he knew that he was too drunk to drive, so he slipped his keys out of his pants and into his jacket. He rucked up the collar so that it was blocking the cold air on his neck as he turned toward home.

"Need a ride?" a voice called out. 

Stiles stopped and looked to see Derek in his Camaro.

"Nah, I'm good." Stiles really didn't need to think about the Hales. Every single one of them was too good, and Stiles was pretty sure that he was going to come out of that car, thinking that his father getting together with two men already in a relationship was his idea. He really didn't want to do that at the moment. He was still trying to wrap his head around it all. And getting over the hurt of his and his father's tradition for games was disturbed by them. That's what hurt the worst, that his father didn't remember their plans after they had been doing it since his mother died. It was their routine, and it helped Stiles feel like he was close to his father. He had given up trips with friends in high school, nights out for sex during college.

Stiles looked around when something triggered his senses, and he realized that Derek had left. He guessed that Derek thought that Stiles was more than capable of handling himself. There were those that didn't, though Stiles knew that it wasn't that. They were worried about him as the Sheriff's son, even if he was a cop himself. He sighed and looked up into the sky. He felt better about a few things, even if life wasn't what he wanted at the moment, he had enough stuff going on to keep himself busy. He was nearly done with the rebuild of Roscoe's systems. He had been working at the local shop on his days off, learning how to take care of his car. It helped him feel closer to his mother. Stiles hadn't been aware when he had been given Roscoe that his father knew nothing about taking care of cars. Hence the duct tape that he was given. His mother had been the genius when it came to cars, which was how Roscoe had been kept in good condition. 

"So, what has you walking the town?" Derek asked as he jogged up beside Stiles.

Stiles turned to look at him. He could see the Camaro parked in one fo the various lots around town that were free parking for access to the public areas of the Preserve. He looked back at Derek, trying to figure out if the guy was being honest or not.

"Did your uncle send you to find me?"

"Peter? No. It's his and Chris' date night. He left work at like two and I haven't talked to him since. I learned that a long time ago, he will answer the phone during sex."

"So does Peter and Chris have an open relationship?" Stiles asked.

"Open? No." The look on Derek's face was hard to place, but after a few seconds, Stiles could.

"Dude, no. That's..." Stiles rubbed his hand over his face and stopped walking. "I don't want to bone either one of them."

"Then why did you ask?" Derek asked.

"Because I went to Dad's for the game tonight and found Chris mostly naked in the kitchen. Dad came down, getting dressed as soon as he realized that I was there. I went off on the speech that Dad had given me about hooking up with guys who were just out of a relationship when Peter came down the stairs in one of Dad's shirts."

"Oh," Derek said, and he didn't sound shocked at all. 

Stiles reached out and jerked Derek around to where he was facing him. "What do you know?"

"Peter has always had a crush on your father and that whole threatening to sue him thing was just a ruse to get a date with him. I didn't know about the crush. The whole breaking up Chris and your father wasn't his end goal, and he felt like shit for it, but by the time it was said and done, Chris knew he had fucked up and while the two of them were still together, there was always a tension between them. That's why Chris has never moved into Peter's place. There is a lot of stuff going on besides all of that, and I haven't heard it all. Cora was a little closer, and she knows more. Three weeks ago, I saw Peter having lunch with your father. I asked him about it, and he said it was a working lunch to discuss a few things about a few people who had been causing issues at the firm. Our firm has the contract for public defenders for the area, as you know, since there have been issues with getting them to move to Beacon Hills. We've been getting a few threats beyond normal, and Peter was worried about a few of the new junior associates."

"And that has to do with this, how?"

"Well, Cora called last week, and something she said made me think. And then I actually started to pay attention to Peter's schedule, he and your father had been doing lunch on Thursday every single week."

"He's been seducing my father," Stiles said.

"Yes. That's what I assume is going on. I wasn't sure what else was going on, but I told him that he needed to be careful with whatever game he's playing. Look, we all know my Uncle can be ruthless. I had no idea that he was looking to add your father to the relationship. I mean, it's not the first time he's been in a triad. There were his roommates in college. They shared an apartment all through their undergrad and post-grad degrees. It wasn't until Spencer accidentally walked in on them one weekend when we were up that we realized that those weekends that we all visited the other two weren't sleeping on cots in Peter's room, but all three of them slept in the same bed. They all parted ways afterward, it had been purely sexual with a deep friendship. Peter still talks to the two of them every single week. They are married."

"Chris regrets it, so Peter seduced Dad into the relationship to make Chris happy. Does Peter even like my father?"

"I can't answer that one. Wait, tonight was the Mets and Phillies game...you and your father never work that night," Derek said. He reached out and clasped Stiles' shoulder.

Stiles looked to the side of his face when Derek looked at him. He had no clue how Derek knew that. Yeah, it wasn't like it was a secret or anything like that, but it was something that no one really talked about. Parrish had even gone so far one time to call in guys who had already worked just to not have to call Stiles and his father in when a bug swept through the station in the course of a day. Stiles' father had been pissed but also grateful. 

"No wonder you are drunk. Jesse called me when you ignored your father in the bar, but he didn't understand what was going on. He said he'd never seen the two of your fight before, so he was worried about you when you left."

"I didn't drive," Stiles said.

"No. I get that. I thought that something else had happened, but then I was trying to figure out why you went to that bar instead of your normal one. Then I realized that it's the one bar that always plays baseball games when they are on. Look, we don't have to say another thing about this, but let me take you home, please. Your place is still three miles away." 

Stiles nodded. He was trying to make sense of how Derek would ever know as much about him as it seemed that he did. Yeah, Derek had been in court a few times with him, but it was never a big thing. Stiles was just another nameless, faceless deputy in the county. Yet, Derek knew that Stiles had one bar he liked to go to and that Stiles and his father watched certain games at home every time they happened in the season. Stiles let Derek escort him to the Camaro that was two blocks back at that point, and he slipped into the passenger seat, strapping himself in so that Derek didn't think that he needed to do it for him. Derek was silent the entire trip, and Stiles was grateful for that. He was tired as hell and super glad that he had the next day off. The day would help him get his head on straight before he saw his father at work. He could do it easily. 

"Or is there somewhere else you want to go?" Derek asked.

"What?" Stiles turned to look at him, and then he looked where Derek's eyes were. Stiles saw his father's white SUV parked outside of his place. Rubbing at his eyes, Stiles thought about what was the best option. He had too much alcohol in his system to talk to his father without yelling at him, so he didn't want to do that. "I really don't care where you drop me off."

"Okay." Derek turned down the street that hopefully didn't draw his father's attention if he was sitting in the SUV. More than likely, he was inside of Stiles' place. He dropped his head to rest on the cold glass and just kind of blanked. 

When the Camaro's engine cut off, Stiles looked around to see that they were not in front of one of Stiles' friends' place but instead in front of Derek's house on the edge of the Preserve. Stiles debated, but he just didn't have it in him to fight. He pushed out to open the door and took a deep breath of the night air. He followed Derek up to the front porch of the house and waited patiently for Derek to open the door and turn off the alarm before he stepped inside. Derek locked the door when it was shut. 

"I'll grab you something to sleep in."

"Nah, I sleep in boxers, so I'll be fine. Just point me to the room you want me to sleep in." 

Derek pointed for him to head up, and Stiles went to the stairs first. He remembered from clearing the house that there were actually three guest rooms. Stiles had no clue how a bachelor needed three guest rooms, but he wasn't gonna say anything about it. 

"Cora and Spencer's rooms are the only ones that are actually used all that often. If Laura is in town, she uses this one. So just to be safe, let's stick you there.

Stiles nodded his head and slipped into the room that Derek pointed at. He shut the door and started to strip. He was tired as hell now. He slipped into bed, and with the alcohol in his system, he was asleep in seconds.

* * *

"No, no. I've got him. You don't need to head out into the town to hunt him down," Derek said.

Stiles paused as he was heading down the stairs. Thankfully there was nothing in the house that creaked as he walked. He tried to figure out where he was.

"Yes, I found him after Peter texted me to tell me to keep my eye out for him and let him know if I saw him. Jesse knew that something happened with the Sheriff, so he called me. I found him about a mile from the bar. He said nothing when I brought him here after we found the Sheriff's SUV parked out front."

Derek had to be talking to Chris then given he had used Peter's name and Sheriff. Stiles sat down on the step and just listened to Derek's side of the conversation. 

"I don't know if I should..." Derek sighed. "Look, Stiles isn't upset about the whole his father having sex with a guy or two guys. Yeah, when he thought it was you finding comfort in the Sheriff's arm after you broke up with Peter or he with you, it seemed he had issues but that it was both of you. I just don't think I should tell you more than that."

Stiles felt a little proud that Derek didn't want to give up why Stiles was upset. Stiles listened closely as Derek made a noise that Stiles had heard before in the courtroom when Derek was dealing with a witness who was giving him trouble. 

"No, Peter, I'm not trying to lord that I am smart over Chris' head. Why don't you get your head out of your ass and think? What did you teach me after six months at your firm? What was the number one rule during baseball season?" There was silence, and then Derek snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly why Noah shoved you out of the house and then waited for his son to come home. Though I do have to congratulate you on that. The last time that the Sheriff had been injured, he had talked a nurse into letting him have Stiles in his room after visiting hours so they could watch the game together. You did something that his years as Sheriff have never done. Just tell Noah to let him seek him out. He's hurt and a little angry at the moment, but it will blow over. The first thing he asked me was if you guys had an open relationship, and he looked happy when I told him no. Just...don't get angry when he pulls you over for stupid infractions for the next month, and I would get that tail light fixed, or he will write you up for it until you do, probably every day that he works."

Stiles laughed to himself as he stood up and headed toward the kitchen. Derek wasn't on the phone anymore. It was there on the counter beside the coffee pot while Derek was standing at the window above the kitchen sink a cup of coffee was in his hand. Stiles saw that there was no more coffee in the pot, and he frowned. Then he noticed the water kettle that was plugged in that hadn't been there that day when Derek had been attacked. Besides, it was a mug, one of the ones in the Sheriff's station with the Sheriff's logo on it and Beacon County. A box of Stiles' favorite tea was beside the mug. Stiles kind of froze at that. 

While Stiles might not have been one of the ones that grew out of their ADHD, he was one that caffeine had a strong reaction in him, especially the amounts in a cup of coffee. So he had swapped to tea as he grew older, and coffee started to act differently in him. He had found that he really liked a lot of teas even more than coffee, especially since he didn't need sugar in tea. He walked over, checked the water level in the kettle, and saw that it was full before turning it on. 

"Here," Derek said.

Stiles turned to look at him, Derek was facing him with his hand held out. In his palm was a tea steeper. It was one that was totally submerged and stuck out the top in the shape of an owl. It would make it look like the owl was perching on his cup. The holes were fine to where even smaller add-ins and rooibos tea wouldn't escape. Stiles looked at the tea to see that it was a bag of loose-leaf. Something that few ever noticed with Stiles that he preferred it to already bagged. 

"I don't know what you use to measure, but I got this as well," Derek said, and he pulled open a drawer and handed out a spoon. 

Stiles opened his mouth to say something but shut it when he saw that it was from the one shop in town that Stiles mostly shopped at. The staff there knew him well and would always start to get his tea ready as he picked up mostly the same teas in the same amounts each week that he was in there. It wasn't where his favorite tea was, though. That was made at this one bakery in town, a blend of stuff that was local. Stiles didn't drink that at work, though, only at home. 

Trying to get his mind in order, Stiles worked on making his tea. He turned the kettle on and dished out the amount of tea that he liked for the size of the mug, and then he closed up the stuff. He looked behind the kettle to see a small basket that had two bags of tea in it. His two most drank blends from the other shop. There was also the small holder for the owl steeper. He pulled that out and settled it down on the counter. The tea could be steeped twice, so he would do that and used the dish to make sure no drips happened. Everything here was new. He knew that because the labels on the two teas had a small defect in the ink that had only popped up two weeks ago. 

Competent was something that Stiles called the Hales, and this was something that just proved it even more. Derek hadn't even asked him out on a date or anything yet, and there was an area in his kitchen that was all for Stiles. Like it was inevitable. Instead of being kind of creepy like most would probably take it, Stiles thought it was kind of sweet. It was well known that Stiles didn't drink coffee, but few understood what Stiles did drink this much. 

Stiles pulled the basket forward and found the timer in there as well, and he set the time on it and started it once the kettle had gone off, and he poured the water over the tea. He looked at Derek then, he was now facing him, his coffee cup in his hands again. 

"So, Dad is not the only Stilinski who is at the hands of a careful seduction of a Hale?" Stiles asked.

"To be honest, I've been intrigued by you longer than Peter has been into your father. I just had to kind of get through some things. We all know that it's no secret that I'm a control freak."

Stiles raised his eyes on that because he had heard it, and it was no wonder that Derek did as well as he did at his job with how controlling he was over every single aspect of his cases. Some refused to work with him, including a few of the ADAs outright pushing someone into the chair if he was the court-appointed attorney given a case. 

"There is nothing wrong with being a control freak as long as you admit that you know you are. Though there are times that being a control freak are downright sexy," Stiles said. 

"Yeah, name one?"

"Sex."

Derek sputtered, setting his coffee cup down. "You know I should have known that. It's another thing that Peter told me. Never have a cup of anything in my hand and be drinking it when you are speaking."

"Ah, the great tie destruction of 2011. I made it my business to wreck every single tie of his with comments every time I saw him drinking something after he sent my father apoplectic during a case once. Dad didn't sleep for weeks as he tried to make sure they had everything that they needed to put a guy away. Peter fucked with him at every turn, so for months afterward, I fucked with him."

"Ah, yes. Mom made comments about him needing new ties that year. I never did figure out why."

"Well, it's not my fault he wore ones that didn't do well with getting wet at all. Him and his snobby ways. So what was your great plan?"

"Well, I was going to ask you to a meal to discuss a random case that was put to rest, but I just wanted to understand more about it and then just keep on showing up and asking you to meals until you finally stopped needing anything other than me showing up to want to eat with me. Then ask you to stay over one night after we get done eating, and by then, my tea collection of yours would be mixed with enough other things that you wouldn't know that I started to build it based on what I see you drinking when you leave the shop."

"Ah. Yes. Well, that is a damned good tactic that I seemed to have stopped in its tracks with you inviting me over last night."

"That's okay. I kind of like that I don't have to stealth date you."

"I would have said yes if you asked me out without a case to talk about."

"Yeah?" Derek asked. He stepped over just as the timer went off.

Stiles plucked his owl out of the mug and held it up to drain before he transferred it to the holder for it. He lifted the mug and took a deep breath of the smell before he set it down again. It needed a few moments to cool more. He reached out and grabbed at the shirt that Derek was wearing and tugged him forward. Stiles was still just in the underwear he had been wearing, he didn't feel like since Derek was male he needed to cover up. Though he was more than pleased with the look of Derek looking at him. Derek kept on coming and pressed Stiles into the counter, hands on either side of him. 

"And what about if I wanted to kiss you?" Derek asked.

"I like kissing." Stiles leaned forward first and rubbed his lips across Derek's. Derek moved then, holding onto Stiles' hip the other burying itself in his hair to hold him in place as he kissed him.

They kissed until Derek's phone rang. Derek groaned and looked at it. He was probably like Stiles, always answered as one never knew who it was. 

Derek stabbed at his phone, and the sound of it connecting filled the room.

"Yes?" Derek growled.

"Oh, nephew, what are you doing? That is your I'm busy growl, but it's a weekend morning, and we just talked not too long ago. Did you get the younger Stilinski into bed?"

"I don't put out before the first date, Creeper. And no, we were both enjoying our morning drinks and talking like adults." 

Derek smiled at him, and he grabbed his coffee, not taking a sip until Peter started to talk. 

"Well, Noah wants to invite both of you out to breakfast."

"All five of us?" Derek asked.

"Yes. Chris was adorable and called it a family outing."

"You should wear a cup," Stiles said. 

Peter sputtered, and Derek started to laugh at that. There was the sound carrying through the phone of at least Stiles' father laughing. He figured that Chris was as well. 

"Yes, well. I feel terrible about what happened. I lied to Noah about what time it was when he asked, and that was why he thought that you were super early. So I thought that maybe I should make it up to both of them. So I'm looking into tickets for the next time that the Mets play in California, and I'll even pay for the car to drive you to and from. How does that sound, Stiles?"

"My affections can easily be bought like that. Though that can be rejected if you ever hurt him," Stiles said.

"Yes. Your father said that I should always watch my back if I ever did something like that. I had no interest as that would also hurt Chris, and I don't think I would survive the combined assaults by you two and Derek on that. There are days that I think he likes Chris better than me." Peter sounded petulant, and it made Stiles laugh. 

"One hour. I need to wash the bar off of me and then find something in Derek's closet that I can fit into."

"An hour then. Your father said you would know where to meet us?"

"Yes, there is only one place that he takes me when he's trying to suck up to me." Stiles reached out and hung up on Peter after that, looking at Derek. 

"Well, I guess our first date is a double date. That's okay. That just means when we get back here, I can easily see what you look like under that." Stiles looked at Derek's boxers and T-shirt that he was wearing. 

Derek leaned in and kissed him again, a promise of what they were going to come back to. Stiles could live with that, for now.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles hadn't realized he had competence kink until he was sitting in the witness box and Derek Hale was questioning him.


End file.
